slowpoke_gif | Monthly Plotting Post!

For the rest of July, we're focused on Outbreak.

The Bug-Catching contest won't happen on June 19th or 26th as they coincide with the plot days, but they will either move to the following Tuesday or resume in early August. (What would you guys prefer?)

Okay, so Riku's Training Center is still ongoing. I've got an IC Post that mentions it and opens up possibilities for brainstorming. I've also got a Massive Info Post that covers the roster, current services, etc. Prices are subject to change.

What I need: Characters willing to volunteer, be it as workers, builders, Pokémon caretakers, or Pokémon volunteers... or anything else you think would be good to have.

Additionally, there has been talk of partnering with the Celadon Breeding Center. Saber's player and I have already discussed this, so if any other breeding center peeps would like to help, coolio! Additionally, Riku may lend some of his team for breeding purposes.

During the Outbreak: I know Rockets are planning on attacking Celadon. Riku may put his 100's to work in an attempt to provide some defense for civilians and such. He's got like... 20+ of them chilling at the center, and he wouldn't mind renting some of them out for protection. Interested? Just let me know.

I'd prefer that these guys not get stolen for now, but if any Rockets wanted to confront them, they're welcome to. Just know that Riku spams TMs and tutor moves, making his guys kinda irritating to deal with.

Random side-note: An egg post will be coming up soon. I know a bunch of you were interested in Riku's stash of overpowered eggs. He just had to backtrack to grab his friends.

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Other random plot ideas. These are kinda basic because they're just sorta 'what-ifs', but here are some things that crossed my mind...

First, I think it'd be super cool if we had another Halloween event that was borderline creepypasta. Lavender Town opens up lots of opportunities. After all, the people there moved a ton of graves to a tiny little building just so they could build a radio tower. Something involving restless spirits might be neat, but I know we've had ghost-related events before.

One thing that crossed my minds was like... just. Mass haunting and ghostly activities. Possibly with a return of creepy Lavender Town music (either backwards or Gen 1-- either would be spooky as heck).

Another plot idea that I think might be interesting is one where chars turn into Pokémon... but I realize that might be too similar to outbreak. I just think it might be an interesting source of karma because some characters are really cruel to their Pokémon, so changing into them and being forced to see things from their perspective might be fun and character-building. But, like with the ghost thing, it's just a random thought that crossed my mind.

But here's a big thing I want: More stuff for Kanto. It really feels like most of the fun stuff goes down in Johto, but for Riku, he's already been all over the region. I'm sure there are others who are more comfortable in Kanto, too. It's great to see the Outbreak spreading between both regions. It'd just be cool if there were other attractions to bring characters to the region. Johto has the Bug Catching Contest, Safari Zone, etc. Maybe there can be something to even things out a little?

(is that really a thing)

I asked the mods about upgrading the PokéGear in the FAQ and they said that while the hardware cant be tinkered with, apps can be developed for it, and thanks to Sora complaining about how difficult it is to navigte, Hope's now gotten the idea that he might be able to program a few new things for it to make it more newbie-friendly. Ah, to be a genius.

So for my first question: What kind of app would you guys like to see on the Gear? The Route friends I have on Plurk suggested a Google Maps-like thing for Johto (and maybe Kanto too), and that's a cool idea, but I'd like to know what others think.

Also, if I do go through with the Google/Johto maps thing, I'm no developer and I'll probably have to fudge something for it, and Hope will need help because there probably no satellites in this world. Silver suggested strapping cameras on flying-types. More suggestions?

I had a plot idea involving Yamask! On Bulbapedia it says that people who put on the mask they carry will be possessed by the Yamask in question, which I think would be a really interesting thing to play with if that was taken to mean possessed by the person the Yamask used to be. I wasn't entirely sure how to handle getting the masks to the characters, though (a swarm getting interfered with, maybe?).

As for the possession aspect, maybe there could be a list of general 'types' of people, like farmer, servant, princess, warrior, etc. and an RNG could decide which type the character would be (this could also involve Pokemon Conquest) with the player headcanon-ing from there. I realize we've done things with ghosts in the past already, and the costume possession thing last Halloween, but it's something I think would be fun and hopefully different enough.

So, I’ve signed up Cobra here to attack the Saffron and Vermillion Gyms. I was wondering if anyone wanted to help him with one/both of those or get involved in that.

Game-wise, I wanted to suggest a couple of things, but they’re pretty vague. Maybe we could have some sort of prehistoric Pokémon event/swarm/thing in the future? Maybe involving the Pewter Museum?

My other idea is that maybe there could be something with the Ruins of Alph and the Unown. Maybe Team Rocket or just some random traveler accidentally does something and releases Unowns everywhere throughout the area?

Like I said, they’re pretty vague and just some ideas I’ve been kicking around for the past couple weeks.

Also on a way smaller note, I’m working on revising Cobra’s list of people he hates but that probably won’t get finished until after the current event.

These are all specific to the Outbreak plot, but this should be a good opportunity to build CR at least!

I have three Rockets participating in the event and attacking different Gyms. Abalon Demar will be attacking Goldenrod's Gym on his own (though I would love it if some other Rockets would like to help him out!). He has a level 5 in Water power, but I'm willing to let him get stopped and captured (and outed as a Rocket!) if he's on his own. If other Rockets are interested in working with him, I'm sure we can coordinate something! Abalon's Pokemon are very weak and can be taken down easily, but he's a very skilled magician back home and he knows his way around the battlefield with his own skills, so he'll be harder to take down than his Pokemon!

Second is Ryuunosuke Uryuu who has a 2 in Dark powers. He's going to be attacking Violet's Gym with the assistance of Peacock! (She doesn't have any powers though.) I'm willing to let Ryuunosuke lose battles however, I would prefer to have him get away without being outed as a member of Team Rocket. If anyone in Violet wants to team up to stop him and Peacock before they actually attack the Gym, that would be great! Ryuunosuke's Pokemon are around levels 50-60 and Peacock's are 30-40 (I think).

And finally, Archer and Kimblee will be doing their usual thing and double teaming both Mahogany and Blackthorn Gyms! They both have full teams of level 100s. Archer has a Psychic power of 1 and Kimblee has an Electric power of 3. Dal and I would prefer if these two get away with their crimes for the time being, but feel free to engage them!

Let me know if you want to do anything with any of these morons!

I can see Apollo sitting off to the side smugly watching people being turned into Pokémon and being happy that they get to see things from the other side. And possibly going out and capturing people he thinks treat their Pokémon badly to show them what it's like. XD

As for Kanto... in Gen II/IV it really doesn't have anything going for it to begin with. The only thing I can think of it the Pal Park, and in Route that would really be just another Safari Zone with different Pokémon to catch. Poking around Bulbapedia for ideas of what could go there... Contests, Pokémon(-riding?) races (land/sea/air/triathlon?), a chance to challenge Red, special items, capture challenges (catch a provided wild Pokémon the fastest/with highest remaining hp/with the most style/whatever). Not sure how workable any of these are, but throwing them out anyway (while knowing that I wouldn't see the benefit of most of them just because of who I play -_-).

You know, I wonder how Apollo would feel about using violence against... well, vicious Pokémon that won't respond to anything else (like Riku's Aerodactyl, which doesn't even think like other Pokémon).

Also, I like the idea of contests, racing, and other challenges! Maybe instead of a bug catching contest there could be other types of contests specific to the region, like... idk. Fishing, ghosts, etc. Fossil digging? That might be neat, due to the museum.

Icons rather than labels for illiterate characters? (Someone really needs to show this guy how to get it to read text and PokéDex entries out loud) ^^;

Some sort of counter-music program that makes a sound that cancels out the BGM? Forget what the effect's called. APOLLO WOULD PAY GOOD MONEY FOR THIS! Even if you had to buy each location's counter-music separately.

Also, I find the "cameras on fliers" idea more amusing than I prolly should. XD;

I was thinking about that looking at Riku's post (which I can't respond to because Apollo can't read and no one's shown him how to activate text-to-voice yet. And he hasn't thought to ask. -_-;). He's fine with violence for self-defense and Pokémon eating eggs, it's the whole "let's make them fight for fun and for shiny badges!" that he objects to. I mean, back home he considers all the animals in the forest his friends, and he still kills and eats them. He just doesn't make them suffer when he kills them and doesn't let anything go to waste. Violence for survival is fine, violence for it's own sake is cruel.

Ooh, fishing contests. That sounds good. ...How would a ghost contest work though?

Changing from text to icons ala Android and iOS might require a good deal of overhaul and I'm not sure the mods would allow completely changing the Gear's OS-- if it in fact does have an OS.

Also I'm pretty sure the Gear has an optional music app that can be bought in PokéMarts but I'll see what I can do with that thing. Hope's not the best music person in the world though, so he'll definitely need help with that one.

Prehistoric Pokémon! \o/ *wants Apollo to have an Archen so bad*

Hm... Would the Unown do that weird crystal thing like in the movie maybe?

On that smaller note, it's too bad Apollo and Cobra won't be able to have a superpowered fight with their powers (he's level 2 fire, if you're wondering), since Apollo will be in the Ecruteak area during the event. I still want that horribly embarrassing fight to happen though. XD

Good point.

It does, but this is more for the possibility of actual silence than just better music. "Phase cancellation". That's the phrase I was looking for.

Yeah, I'd thought of having him do a video announcement as well, but text was an easier format for him because he was trying to hide the fact that he was really, really ticked off about what happened in Goldenrod. Plus, it's a pain to have to switch to text to link and then go back to video.

He'll... probably have a video post in the future about his business, though, which... totally encourages the whole fighting thing. :|b

As for a ghost contest-- maybe the people in Lavender town are getting harassed by ghosts and are willing to give a prize for the person who catches the most dangerous/obnoxious/something ghost.

Re: the music thing, I think in principle all you'd have to do is invert the music track and then have the app sync that sound file with the background music such that the sound waves would cancel out. Essentially you'd just have each area's track recorded invertedly, which you'd buy for the app, and then when you walked into an area, the program would have to detect where the background music was at in its "track" and sync up the inverted music file with it.

(also if my science fails me here, it's 2 AM, don't judge me)

The other logistics of how to play it, what range it would have, etc. would be something you'd have to work out separately, but in terms of just flipping the tracks, I could always throw you Carmen's Porygon. He does sound editing sometimes. It's a hobby. >>

Apollo on the other hand was more "Oh, humans getting hurt? It's probably what they deserved." -_-;;; He really needs to be shown mass human suffering so he can get it through his head that humans can suffer like animals can and get out of that anti-human mindset. I'd rather him learn on his own than canon-update him and let the deus ex machina he'll experience show him.

I'm sure it'll come up eventually.

I'd have to side with the ghosts on this one, considering the whole "graves being moved" thing. If anything, they'd likely be going after the radio tower, which might make people stop and wonder if they should really be trying to catch them all or let them have their revenge.

I have something for the ghost thing! In anime canon, people observe Obon as well, most especially Toro Nagashi aka placing lanterns on water and letting them float away. It was successful in leading a Gastly away from the place, though I think it wanted to go anyway. I forget the exact circumstances of the episode but I think a Blastoise/Venusaur fusion was involved.

Since Lavender is connected to the bridges in the south, Toro Nagashi could work, with people building their own little boats or floaters for the lanterns.

I'll have to consult someone knowledgeable in sound and noise for confirmation (because I'm really only good in biology and anatomy), but that's definitely a good idea!

The comment below definitely helps with this thought. I think it's plausible if we go with that idea!

I think the only problem is: Would the mods allow it? It definitely sounds like a spiffy idea, but music elimination might be a no.

Then again, Riku would probably appreciate some silence and pay for such an app.

Man, Terror doesn't even discriminate. She sees two legs and thinks target/prey/enemy. Bloodthirsty little devil, she is. And Quake the Garchomp thrives on violence and making Pokémon suffer just as much as people.

And that's why I'd love to see ghosts and Lavender town explored. The moving of graves seems like such a controversial move just to build a stinking radio tower. I know Riku's haunter wanted to spray paint the place with obscene phrases.

Oh, now there's an idea! It might be a fun little way to incorporate the anime mythos. Ecruteak could probably join in the celebrations, too.

I'd like to volunteer Twilight to stop Ryuunosuke and Peacock. With her level 70+ pokemon (not a full party of those, but as they include a Dragonite and a Kadabra she doesn't need numbers) and her level 4 Electric powers, she should serve as quite the roadblock. The thing is, she's going to put a very, very high priority in determining their identities, so she'll be doing everything she can to tear off their disguises, paralyze them for capture (hell-o Thunder Wave!) and basically just try to ruin their anonimity. Not saying she'll succeed, mind you, but expect clothing damage and maybe a forced retreat before she can unmask them. Also, she's a PGC member, so any features she notes about them will be sent to the Corps at large.

If that's all cool with you, then I think we might have ourselves a plan!

It's just like the OS overhaul too, so I'm really not sure if it will work. I'll go ask them when I've got some free time. If all else fails, probably something else music-related could be done, such as muffling it to keep it manageable.

He wouldn't be upset by being seen as food. He'd still defend himself, of course, but he wouldn't find it to be a terrible thing, since she's just doing what she does. Quake on the other hand... He's kind of grudgingly accepted that Pokémon in general enjoy fighting, but he avoids giving his team the chance to fight when they don't need to. An animal that actually enjoyed making other animals suffer, he'd probably feel a bit of sympathy for it, since he would interpret it as being sick in some way. It would likely be one of the few times he'd actively try to change an animal's behaviour, mainly since here he can't solve the problem by killing and eating it, which he did in canon with a deer that significantly overgrazed to the point where it became a problem.

I agree. It makes me wonder what the campaign was like to build it, how heated the debate got, and how resentful each side still is of the other.

Who says Pokémon is all kiddie stuff? ^^

Monthly Plotting Post!

Upcoming Mod Plots

More Training Center deets + some other random ideas

PokéGear software?

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